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(More customer reviews)I was leery of buying HP because in the past they just haven't seemed to have it together as much as Canon and others. But, I was so impressed by the features of this HP 2710, and I couldn't find anything just like it by Canon, so I bought this. The good news is, the hardware part of this works like a dream and is very impressive. The bad news is, the software package that goes with this is a mess and IS bloated. I have WIN ME, and what a disaster...the HP software installation blew up the first time I tried to install it and gave me registry errors. I have installed and uninstalled the software probably 15 times. About half the time you try to install, it blows up without totally installing. Leaving you to once again uninstall and install. And the fix to everything according to HP is to uninstall and install again, which takes about an hour round trip. I never did get the software to totally work with an ethernet (no scanning or file transfer capability), so I ditched that and did USB. After several uninstalls and installs again (which finally corrupted explorer.exe and I had to reload WIN ME), I still cannot scan and HP DIRECTOR is giving me script errors (and no - not any script errors listed on HP support - and I already did what they said to do to fix script errors). DIRECTOR runs the whole show and without it I am without useful ways to use and change parameters on my printer. I'll give really, really high marks to HP support, they were easy to get ahold of and they will sit on the phone for hours with you trying to fix things, but it doesn't do much good, because they cannot fix these problems at this time. I would think long and hard before buying until they update the software, unless you want to spend HOURS working on it and be left with a partially working application. Especially around Christmas...
12/06/04 - I want to add that I did a lot of research on this software installation problem, and at this time it boils down to this: It will either install with very few hitches and run flawlessly, or you will have several problems with installation and be left with an AIO system that doesn't totally work. For example, I cannot scan or change any of my scan resolution settings (or use anything with HP DIRECTOR - not because all the icons are missing - but because of script errors), or use the one button scan or file transfer features of the hardware because it doesn't recognize my computer. And mind you, this is with an installation that at the end said it installed successfully (it went through fax set-up, registration, and everything). I have seen posts of problems very similiar to mine in Windows XP (even SP2 - one guy had one computer it would work on, and one it would not) so it doesn't appear to matter if you have ME or XP. And nobody, including TECH support, seems to have a reason for the problems or a fix for this at this time. The software version I have is 4.2.0 (Photosmart 2600/2700 series) for WIN 98, ME, 2000, and XP. Again, if you want everything to work correctly, I would check the HP web site and make sure they upgraded this software or they have a fix for the problems I described (which they do not at this time) before buying, otherwise from my experience and research, you are playing Russian Roulette as to whether the software installs correctly on your system.
12/07/04 - AND...one more follow up and then I'm done...do yourself a favor and read ALL the reviews for the HP 7410 (which should be using the same software), or the HP PSC 2410, which is a forerunner to the 2710...you'll find plenty of references to the "bloated software" and installation problems. In fact the more I read reviews about all-in-ones in general, the more I read about problems and the "bloated" HP software. My favorite line was "it infects your registry like cancer". Boy, that is the truth, you can see that when installing. I swear it makes 300-400 registry entries. The software is way too complicated and puts junk everywhere in your system. That's why it gets into trouble. I have changed my chipset driver, downloaded VBSCRIPT 5.6 (even though I think I had it already), downloaded WIN Installer 2.0 and MDACS 2.8 (even though both I think come on the software disk), done this and that, and I am completely convinced I am never going to get the software to run right unless by great fortune they update the software and do it right. I've spent a whole weekend and several nights on this, and it's crazy, just to install a printer. And I'm not an idiot, I'm in IT. If you don't need fax, and can hook up USB, I'd look at the EPSON RX600. From reviews their software is simple and excellent. I know this HP 2710 has on paper a lot of cool features, but the other guys will match those soon. HP has proven both to me and via reviews on forerunner products that they write really terrible software. If you buy, I hope you're one of the lucky ones it works for, but if not, don't say you weren't warned...
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Photosmart Network-Ready 2710 Color InkJet All-in-One Printer, Copier, Scanner, FaxHigh quality printing and high speed wireless networking for home and business. View, print and edit photos without a PC. Front panel editing buttons: rotate, crop, zoom and remove red eye before printing. Scan, fax and print simultaneously. Speed:30 ppm black and 20ppm color. Up to 4800 x 1200 dpi.Scanner: 2400 x 4800 dpi optical resolution. Bit Depth:48-bit. Copier Speed: 30 cpm black and 20 cpm color. Reduce/Enlarge:25% to 400%. Fax: 33.6 Kbps. Page Memory:Up to 60 pages.
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